The Anti-Bolivarian Student Movement: New Social Actors Challenge the Advancement of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Socialism

The decision of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez not to renew the private TV channel RCTV’s (Radio Caracas Televisión) broadcasting licence in May 2007 became the focal point for students from different universities of Caracas to unite (with no political affiliation with opposition parties) and construct a movement that used youth, freedom of speech, nonviolence and reconciliation as the discourse to challenge Chávez’s regime. This apparent apolitical movement took Chavistas and opposition supporters by surprise. This paper examines the emergence, formation, and success of this movement and why it failed to convert and evolve itself as an influential opposition political force after 2007